Brother where are you?
by Micke
Summary: A Ranma Naruto crossover. What if Itachi and Sasuke had a brother? Said brother disappearing before Sasuke's birth and finding himself being raised by Genma Saotome.
1. Prologue

**Brother where are you?**

A Ranma and Naruto crossover.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Naruto.

Genma Saotome was a happy man at the moment, nothing was like a little training trip to clean out your system. Only the sky over your head, as you strived to perfect your art. Now he had returned in glory after training several weeks in the wilderness of Japan. Here he was, a man in his best years, entering the local pub and café again. There had been some close calls during the trip, one had nearly cost him his life. Fortunately his quick wit and excellent thinking saved him once again from the wrath of his katana wielding wife.

Since it was midday the place was half empty, just some families refreshing themselves from the brutal rays of the sun and in one corner a young girl, well young might not be the right word. She must have been around eighteen years old, but still she looked frail and lost.

Genma having been here before managed to navigate to his favourite seat in front of bar with no hassle. His young son, wrapped in a white blanket with a red and white fan embroidered on it., was laid on the bar and given his baby bottle with milk, which he started suckling on instantly.

"Hello there old boy," a voice full of mirth greeted him. "Back so early? You haven't been gone for more than a few weeks, your age starting to catch up to you, eh?"

"Ah, Issei," Genma visibly relaxed at seeing the old bartender with his grey hair and moustache, some of the other employees had grudges against him and would probably outright refuse to serve him, if not even calling the police on him. Issei on the other hand he had known for several years and the old man liked to hear the stories of his exploits and sometimes he would even start to tell the stories of his younger years. "Well you know me, I wouldn't even think of leaving Nodoka alone for too long. I'm much too considerate of her feelings."

Issei's eyes had a mischievous twinkle in them. "More like you wouldn't dare to take her first born son away for months just some weeks after she gave birth to him. Honestly Genma she might have your hide for this."

When Genma cringed, Issei just couldn't keep it inside anymore and burst into a roaring laughter.

"The usual I presume?" Issei said as he poured up a cup of sake and slid it over to White-dressed martial artist. Genma accepted the glass with a nod of thanks and started to sip down the content slowly, knowing that this would annoy the old man.

Issei knowing his friend's usual way of drinking sake was to gulp everything down and then pour himself another glass, before the information collected by the taste buds had reached the brain. This really irked him. Here he was an old guy without any source of excitement in his life, except for the occasional visit by his long time friend. Well, not really the visit, though he certainly found Genma amusing. No, it was the stories of adventure and excitement, most of them being glorified versions of reality, but still they brought some life into his old gloomy days. It wasn't long before he cracked.

"So tell me did anything interesting happen or was it just the same old?"

Genma started to look ill as he gulped down the last of his beverage, before placing the glass on the bar for a refill. "There were some accidents, but they are quite boring and I wouldn't dream of forcing you to listen to a young mans rambling."

Reading his friend's body language the old bartender came to the conclusion that something really interesting had taken place. Interesting as in "anther stupid stunt Genma Saotome style." If he just got kept on pouring up drinks, Genma would soon be drunk enough to revel even the most horrendous things that had taken place during his trip with master Happosai.

The white clad martial artist accepted the bottle offered to him and chugged it all down.

"It was close this time, really close," mumbled Genma as he put his bottle down,"it all started two weeks ago…"

* * *

The sun was high in the sky and the heat made the air ripple. No grass could be seen and crows were flying high in the sky, preparing for a feast. On the ground a man wearing a white dogi marched a man. A crutch in his hand and a brown bundle on his back contain a dark haired infant. Those poor wanderers hadn't had anything to eat for almost a week and now they were out of water. The brave father (remember this is Genma telling the story) had forgone their last piece of bread several days ago to the young baby and now he was screaming. The disgraces of fathering such an ungrateful son could not be described. 

"What was that?" Genma was suddenly snapped out of his mental rant by the smell of something being grilled. Without realizing that he had just asked himself a question, the bald martial artist set out to find the source the wonderful smell.

A little further ahead another man with his child was preparing lunch. The fish being grilled over the small fire making it fairly obvious that this was the source of the smell. The little baby girl gurgled in her sleep and the big eared man reached over to pat her check.

Genma struggled on, closer and closer to the source of that sweet aroma of heavenly delights. Hills were climbed and plains crossed. Then suddenly there it was. A roasted fish on a stick along with a bowl filled to the brim with rice. There were even pickles. The starving martial artist drooled as his mind filled wit vivid images of him sinking his teeth into the crispy texture of the grilled fish. Wait a minute, what was that man doing to his lunch? Not eating it, right?

Mr. Daikoku was just about to begin his lunch, when he felt something off. Opening his eyes, which earlier had been closed in rapture, he saw something that definitely wasn't normal. A man dressed in a white dogi trying to lick his fish.

"What do you think you are doing, weirdo?"

Genma not prepared for the outburst, backed of a little, while contemplating what to do. Surely this man wouldn't mind sharing his lunch after hearing his tragic tale.

"A week without food I have wandered, not a grain of rice nor a drop of miso. I'm not begging name your price and I will pay it." The little bundle on his back made slight, obviously making it's displeasure at being wakened known.

"Say if that thing you have on your back is what I think it is, I might consider parting with my fish in exchange for him. You see I don't have an heir to the Dikoku style of martial arts, so I'll marry him to my Kaori and it will be happy ever after for the Daikokus."

Genma didn't need long to make up his mind, after all his son wouldn't like his father to be suffering, would he?

"You got a deal if you throw in the rice and the pickles too."

* * *

"So let's see if I got this right," Issei's right eyebrow twitched furiously. "You sold your son, whom isn't more than a couple of months old, for a fish and some rice? You are so dead if Nodoka ever finds out about this." 

"Don't forget the pickles. Oh, the sweet taste of pickles, like ambrosia for a dying man," by now Genma was slurring his speech, obviously drunk as a skunk. Two empty bottles lay knocked over on the bar beside him and another one in his hands.

"Ok Genma, I'll make sure to remember the pickles," a slight chuckle could be heard from the older of the two men. "Just tell me how you got Ranma back?"

By now Genma looked kind of like a kicked puppy left all alone outside in the rain. "I didn't get him back," he sniffled out while tears went flying from his eyes, "My attempt to use a rope and a stick to get him back was foiled by the damn stick breaking."

"So who is he then?" Issei said while pointing towards the little toddler sleeping contently on the counter.

"That's my replacement Ranma, given to me from the heavens. As I wandered the woods thinking about how to tell Nodoka that I lost her son, he just appeared in front of me. There was a flash of bright light and then there he was. How lucky for me!"

Genma took another gulp of sake and went of on a tirade about how smart he was. Meanwhile little Ranma slept, not knowing what he had gotten himself into.

* * *

A couple of hours earlier in Ranma's home reality it was a beautiful day, birds were singing and small fuzzy animals playing. Nobody could have foretold that this day a tragedy would strike a family, the worst ting for years to come. Eventually it would be surpassed by greater things but today those things far away in the future wouldn't matter even if they could have some faint knowledge about what was coming. It all began this day. The Story of a boy that lost his little brother. 

Still nothing of this had happened yet and the residences of the house were happy, in particular a proud big brother. He had been there minutes after his mother delivered the little bundle of joy into the world and he had most defiantly heard the little bugger first.

Uchiha Itachi smiled, fondly recalling the memories of the past weeks. He was a four year old prodigy in the ninja arts, respected by those in his own age group, friends or foes, even feared by some of the bullies that had brought his wrath upon themselves. All that was far away now, he was a loner, distanced from those of equal age by his blood and his ambition to be the best for his father and the family. So most of his time went to training or spending time with his parents or private teachers. It wasn't as if he didn't have any friends, he certainly did, but most of them were from within

Although even if he was busy with training or his father had important business, for the clan or the village, they had a weekly ritual of going down to the nearby lake for a **picnic**. His mother would prepare a basket full of tasty treats and they would sit down to eat in the cool shade of a willow. They would talk about the week that had passed, his father would whine about the idiots at work or his latest assignments, like any normal father, Itachi would describe how his training was progressing or if he had done anything special with his friends. The important thing was that he knew he was loved and he couldn't wait until he could bring his little brother down to the lake. Maybe he could teach him how to swim or they would practice their jutsus together, nothing would ever come between them.

The young ninja was brought out of his musings by the scream from the main house. Obviously his brother was hungry once again, he certainly did have a healthy apatite.

The four year old giggled slightly. This wasn't the time for thinking, after all it would be a long time until he got another chance as good as this to test out the cool jutsu he read about the day before his brother's birth. Both his parents had been at the doctor's office and he had been home alone. This meant that he had unrestricted access to the library. Normally he wasn't allowed into the section containing the scrolls with advanced techniques. During the years the Uchiha family, with the help of the copying ability of the sharingan, had accumulated a vast record of nin-jutsu and gen-jutsu. Usually Itachi was only allowed to read scrolls containing low to midlevel techniques, but this time he had snuck into the advanced parts.

The young boy's face lit up with glee as he recalled all the interesting and amazing things he had found stuffed away in old scrolls, long forgotten by the outside world.

The technique he finally decided on was one that formed a mind bond between the user and the recipient. This would greatly benefit him in his self appointed task of protecting his little brother. The bond would give him a general idea about how his brother was feeling as well as where he was at the moment.

Now the only thing he had to do was to wait for his mother to finish up feeding the baby. The little one usually slept after getting fed and that was when he would put his plan in motion.

A mischievous twinkle shown in his eyes, Itachi slowly sneaked towards his brother's cradle.

* * *

Everything had gone off without a hitch, nobody had interrupted him and he had been able to execute an advanced technique flawlessly. Itachi was giddy with pride in himself as he skipped down the hallway. In the back of his head a little bundle of emotions.

* * *

Author's notes: My first published attempt at fanfiction. This idea has been harassing me for months and I just had to write it. I know that this prologue is really vague and that it basically leaves the reader with lots of questions. Basically Ranma is living with the Dikokus and an unnamed Uchiha baby has taken his place.

About the mind bond thingy, think about the warder bond from "Wheel of Time" and you basically got it.

So did you like it or hate it? Are there lot of spelling and grammar errors or does my way of writing bother you? If so please let me know, after all I am writing this to improve my English and to provide others and myself with enjoyment.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

Lots of kids were assembled. Standing together in the big courtyard in front of the ninja academy, everyone was dressed up in their finest clothing. A little further back stood their parents, most of their faces beaming with pride. Itachi was also standing there, in the second row from the front. This day dressed up in black pants and a black t-shirt. Over the t-shirt he had a black jacket with the Uchiha fan on its back. He felt a little uncomfortable in the big mass of children, not used to such big masses of people.

A little further back his father stood, an honest smile on his face for the first time in the year that had passed since that had happened. Nobody ever spoke of it, though it still lingered over the Uchiha family like a dark cloud. He remembered the moment so well, he had been wandering home, Shisuiand he had been on the other side of town playing hide and seek with a couple of other kids their age. It wasn't really his favourite game, although he was quite good at it, patience just wasn't his thing and normally he lost concentration and made some sound that alerted the seeker to his hiding spot.

When they passed the ninja academy they couldn't help, but to stay for awhile to watch the newbie class train their taijutsu. Both boys stared with wide eyes at the teacher's casual display of lightning fast speed and grace. The new cadets were equally amazed, if not even more so and soon went to work. This was the signal for Itachi's and Shisui's departure and soon they were walking along the main street of the hidden leaf village, setting quite a brisk pace to reach home in time to wash up before dinner. Mrs. Uchiha didn't like smelly boys with dirty hands in her dining hall. If she paid any attention to him, those last weeks since her delivery she had regularly been spacing out when feeding or otherwise holding the baby. It was odd, Itachi felt that he should be jealous at all the attention his younger brother got instead of him, they had even cancelled their lake picnic, for the first them in as long as his memory could recall. The problem was that every time he looked down on his brother's innocent face, he couldn't help but to feel at peace.

Speaking of his brother, Itachi had felt him move through the bond for the last hour. Now when he knew what had happened, he cursed his stupidity. Why would his brother be anywhere else than in his safe cradle at home? But at that moment he didn't know. Then everything had happened so fast. The bundle of emotions that was his brother flared up in fright and less then a second later in mind numbing pain. Itachi felt the little bundle turn into a ball of white hot iron. His whole mind exploded in pain and he sagged down onto his knees, screaming out loud. The last thing he had felt before he was claimed by the blissful thing that was unconsciousness was something ripped from his mind, he could no longer feel his little brother presence.

Itachi shuddered, those memories were painful even after the year that had passed. When he arrived at home, walking only thanks to Shisui's help, he found his mother totally broken down mentally. She was laying on her futon, eyes staring off into space, red and puffy from crying. He hadn't the heart to bother her, she just looked to frail.

His father arrived much later, a haggard look on his face. Itachi had tried questioning his father about what had happened to his brother, but the elder Uchiha refused to speak of it and when Itachi had tried asking again, he became annoyed and gave him a slap across his face. The slight stinging had been far worse than anything had ever felt before. His father had never hit him and by doing so it felt as if part of the trust between them had been forever lost. Nobody had ever spoken of the incident again in the Uchiha residence.

Itachi was brought back to present day by the two men emerging from the academy. One of them with ruffled blond hair, he recognized as the yondaime. He was inexperienced in his office as Hokage, assuming the position after the third's retirement two years earlier, though inexperienced he had already earned the people's trust by putting his life on the line for the village several times. By his side the old Hokage walked with a smile on his face. Itachi immediately straightened his back and looked forward, wanting to make a favourable first impression.

It didn't take long until the other children did the same and the fourth started to speak.

"Welcome new ninjas into the academy. This is where your journey to become full fledged ninjas of the leaf begin and who knows, one day you might e back here as a teacher for the next generation." Yondaime's face was bright and his gaze steadfast, his looks alone enough to make a blind man trust him. "We have been a secret ninja village since the days of shodaime. Thousands upon thousands of ninjas has passed through those gates, then later emerging as proud shinobis of the leaf. Why do we carry on in the way of our forefathers? Why are we not ordinary villagers instead of ninjas? I like to believe it's because we all have something special to us, something important worthy of protecting even if it takes everything. You can't be a true shinobi without having a goal that is above personal gain. Something that encourages you to go forth even in situations were everything seems hopeless. One day you will find something, it might be family, a special philosophy or something as simple as a strong emotion, but when you find it there won't be a doubt about it. The only thing that's for sure is that no one can tell you what it will be. For me, my precious thing is this village and its people." Yondaime's voice had begun to crack a little in the end due to speaking for such a long time without a break.

When the children realized his speech had come to an end, they started a polite applaud. Most of the things he said had passed straight over their heads, but they understood that it was something important since he had spoken a bit like their parents did when they wanted to make a point clear. Though there were some of them that did understand. One of those had even been deeply touched by those words and it had made him start to contemplate his own life and his "special thing", or maybe special someone was a better word.Itachi made a woe, one way or another he would get his little brother back and nothing would be allowed to hurt him once he was home.

* * *

Itachi was sitting a tree. His hair tied behind his head and wearing all black. His other brother had just been born. This time his parents hadn't waited with deciding what to name their son. His name would be Sasuke. 

Itachi wasn't exactly thrilled at this turn of events. To him it felt as if his parents were just trying to forget his other brother and replace him with a substitute. Maybe his family would rather forget the whole thing and move on, but he wouldn't stand for it, not as long as his brother was still alive somewhere.

A scream pierced the night. His new brother's first.

* * *

Clouds were filling the sky. Their blue hue speaking of rain to come. This didn't bother the little child dressed in a white dogi, that was sitting on a tree branch overlooking a clearing. Ranma had after all endured a lot of things worse than some rain during his first six years of life and the subsequent four years that he had spent away from home, training to be the best. 

At first he had been having the time of his life, as the thrill of learning new techniques was kind of like drinking ambrosia directly from the table of the gods for young Ranma. His skill at picking up things was uncanny, most of the time he would have them done in less then a day, though sometimes it was a matter of minutes.

Ranma slowly dangled his legs as he overlooked his so called father digging a pit in the loose soil.

"Hey pops, what are you doing?" Ranma called out.

Genma looked up from his work and wiped some sweat from his brow before answering.

"Don't worry about it boy, this is just preparations for the training in the invincible neko-ken," Genma smiled as he pictured his glorious retirement, living off the boy's hard work. "I'll be done soon and then we can start."

Ranma sighed, by now used to the so called special techniques that his father tried to teach him. Last month Genma had come up with the brilliant idea to raise Ranma's resistance to heat, after all lots of ki based moves either were hot by nature or they exploded resulting in big balls of fire. Seamed logical and fine, even Ranma could see the logic in Genma's reasoning. Then he found out what the training was composed of rolling around, all tied up, on a bed of burning coal. Fortunately for Ranma the ropes had caught fire after awhile and he managed to escape the fiery hell with some mild burns and no eyebrows. Then there was that time when they climbed Fuji-san and Genma attached a rope to him and then tied it around an enormous rock. With swift kick the old man had set the rock moving.

Ranma shuddered briefly on his elevated lockout spot, recalling the run downhill. He had only managed to stay on his feet for a couple of hundred meters, a sudden change of the ground from hard mountain into loose pebbles introduced him to the joy of tumbling downhill dragged by rock. If only he could have stayed conscious, he would have made a serious attempt at Genma's life. As it was he woke up three days later in a hospital having both his legs broken, the right one in three places, it had taken him almost half a year to heal completely and during that time his father had found several new ways for one to train their upper body while sitting in a wheel chair.

Even tough his training was gruellingand he woke up every morning with new bruises and injuries, there were one good thing about this trip. His mother had stayed at home, after being, well let us call it persuaded by Genma. Ranma never did figure why their discussion was composed mostly of loud cries of "more" and moans. Did they fight or what? Though the reasons his mother had for staying at home, instead of accompanying them, were irrelevant to Ranma. He was just happy she wasn't there. Something about the way she looked at him, like he had committed some kind of crime, had always unnerved him. With a moron for a father and a mother that looked upon him as if he was criminal, there weren't many important people in his life. Vaguely he could recall a boy living on the same street as he used to. They used to play together from time to time, but that was four years ago and memories weren't muck comfort. There was one thing he had that kept his nose above the slimy water of loneliness. Sometimes he thought he was crazy, that his mind was playing him some bizarre trick, but he could swear that he felt emotions in the back of his mind. They weren't his or rather they didn't always reflect what he was felling at the moment. He could be depressed or sad, or maybe just feeling in particular lonely, yet there was always comfort in that little ball. Often the emotions were positive, such things as happiness and determination were common, but there were also rare moments of melancholy and anger.

At the moment his male parental unit was digging a hole while signing to himself.Looking over at the boy, as usually dressed in his white dogi, the bald martial artist couldn't help but pride in himself for raising such a tremendous child. At the tender age of ten the boy had surpassed all of his expectations, his uncanny way of just having to watch something done once and then copy it was everything Genma could have hoped for in his own offspring, though the boy wasn't exactly the fruit of his loins. Still Genma felt he had made a good choice when he lost his other son, he deserved some credit for finding such an excellent replacement with such a short notice, so what if Nodoka never liked the boy?

Of course Genma hadn't taken in to count that mother had an eerie ability of recognising their own offspring. Such a small thing as a birthmark that hadn't been there before could have busted up his whole plan. Something like Ranma changing eye colour from bright blue to red in less then a month wasn't something odd to Genma, but Nodoka had most definitely noticed and become suspicious. It wasn't like it mattered now, she wouldn't see the boy for at least ten years and everything that seamed of after such a long time he could explain as training mishaps.

All in all life was good and soon it would be even better, since the pit was now finished and the only thing left was to fill it up with cats, hungry cats.

* * *

The sun was coming to a rest under the horizon and so was the bald martial artist called Genma, though he was laying down under a tree in a clearing instead of under the horizon. His son was once again proving to be a coward. As soon the third time he threw him down int the pit he had been whining and moaning like a little girl. No son of his would be allowed to back out of learning an invincible technique, especially after all the work he had gone through digging it. Genma gazed upon the manhole coverhe had place upon the pit to prevent Ranma from escaping. He hated to admit it but the boy was really in good physical shape and a small jump, like the 4 meters of height that the pit had, was piece of cake for him. So steps had to be taken to prevent that from happening. After all what would the point of the cats be if they couldn't reach the trainee? 

While Genma relaxed above him, Ranma was starting to become desperate Tied up with fish sausage, there wasn't much he could do tofend of the cats' claws. His eyes had so far been spared, most of the sausages were after all on his body, but he feared what would happen when they had finished the sausage and came upwards looking for more. His fear was soon made correct as the tiny pricks of pain, that cats' claws made as they pierced his skin, moved upwards.

Slowly he could feel his body giving in to panic. It was an odd thing. His mind stayed rational, but his body didn't. He could only watch from inside his head as he leapt upwards away from the pain. Hand's flailing, in an attempt to get as many of his tormentors of him as ever possible.

Then for a short amount of time he was free, no more claws and subsequent pain. For what felt like an eternity of bliss, but in reality was less than a second, Ranma felt weightless and carefree, then reality made its presence known in the form of the hard metal of the manholecover. Dust stirred on the ground when the ten year old came crashing down. Ranma hadn't had anytime to braze himself for the fall, therefore he could only watch, strange colors obscuring his vision, when the cats once again climbed back up and resumed their meal.

Ranma let out a scream of horror, its echo the only thing keeping him company in his lonely despair. The damburst and his entire body was flooded with the thick slimy liquid known as fear.

* * *

Genma had been sleeping under one of the trees in the clearing when all hell broke lose. Groggily he looked up, his sight blurred, and the first thing he saw was the man hole cover blsting up towards the sky. What could possibly be the cause of this? Genma contemplated, while looking around the clearing to see if there were any outsiders there. 

The heavy thud coming from a large circular piece hitting the ground, after a short trip skywards, brought the quickly paling martial artist back to where his focus should be. Could it be? Had his son finally mastered the feared Neko-ken?Genma saw no other logiacal explanation since after all Ranma were indeed strong, but for suer not able to do such a feat at his tender age. One thing is essential to martial artist and ninjas a like, be mindfull of your sourrundings. While Genma was busy patting himself on the back he forgot this simple thing, which he was otherwise one of the masters in, having so many people after his hide.This misstake almost cost him his life. Only when his danger sense went haywire, he turned around.

What he saw was one thing he would never forget. It looked like his adopted son, only its face and upper body was in tatters, blood coating his skin and more pouring out from the hundreds of little wounds that were on his body. He could see no trace of the powerfull chi claws that the technique leflet had spoken of, but this really didn't concern him as something more important was pocking for his attention. The look coming from his son's eyes was one of utter insanity and bloodlust. For the first time since this incident had started Genma realised what he had done. Throwing a kid to a bunch of starving cats wasn't really an human thing to do and he probably would have felt very much remorse, if it wasn't for the fact that he was busy being scared shitless. The pupils of his sons eyes had focused in on him and around them there where two black dots circling.

As Genma preperade to subdue his wayward son, he realised that at least something good had come from this wretched plan. If only he knew what he unlocked that day.

* * *

Author's notes: Sorry this took so long. I finished this chapter in early April, but due to certain circumstances I haven't been able to post it. Trut to be told I had almost forgot about it. Think of this as kind of a beta chapter one there might be changes when I get the time to read through what I have actually written 

Thanks for the reviews they all made my day. I'm aware of the fact that there are simmilarites betwen this and "Sharingan legacy", but I hope this chapter proves that I'm heading down a diffrent patch.

I want to thank MaxKrugman whom made some valid points about the shortcomings of the previous chapter. I've made some changes to it because of this and this time I'm a lot more satisfied with how it turned out. There is no need to reread it since the change is only minor, but as I said before I like it better this way.

And before I go I just like to run this idea by you readers to see if it's worth even thinking about writing it. Due to the realese of the new Harry Potter book I kind of thought about writing a crossover matching up Ranma and Nymphadora Tonks. No magical Ranma, though he might get a job as some kind of security officer, I don't really know. Is this far out or something you might enjoy reading? Please let me know.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: As always I own none of the characters portrayed in this work of fiction, I'm soley doing it for mine and others enjoyment. Now back to the story after my "short" break. A fair warning, I'm working with one and a half year old knowledge of the manga at the moment, so things might seem a bit messed up. Wikipedia will have to do until I can find the time and mood to get up to date on Naruto.

* * *

A wind was blowing down the street, creating small waves in the large puddles. It had been raining for a week straight now, for Itachi it seemed rain was the weather he knew. For three years straight now, no sun had broken through the pitch black fog that was his thoughts. His younger brother had turned three years old and life had moved on for his family. One thing was tabu and none spoke of it ever after Sasuke's birth, chosing to treasure what they had instead of thinking of the past. He couldn't let the past go that easily, applying himself to his studies with a frenzied vigor that amazed most of his teachers and scared the common kids away from him, fine with him he carried no need for the approval of the masses, the only thing he wanted was to once again look into those blue eyes and apologize for his failure. Any price was worth paying. He grduated at the top of his class a year agao an went on to basic missions. Even though he had small amounts of spare time, he opted to use it all for broadining his knowledge and increasing his powers. 

He passed several stores as he walked towards the designated meeting place for the day. His socks were already soaked, while other people scurried along the edges of the street, obviously anxious to get indoors, he walked in the center of it as if this eight year old had no care in the world. At the moment he didn't his little brother seemed content. At least he couldn't feel anything in particular at the moment.

"Hey Gloomy, wait up ehh," Itachi frowned briefly, though when he had turned none of this was visible on his face. Mitsuko had a way to hyper attitude for his tastes, unfortunently they were both apart of the same team.

"Good morning," he replied as he assumed walking.

Mitsuko clasped her hands togheter and leaned backwards, her back made cracking sounds. "Good? You are getting pelted with rain and you call it a good morning, at least have the decency to bring an umbrella like normal people," she pumped hers up and down as to illustrate her point.

"It's merely a figure of speech," he twitched at the mere thought of bringing an umbrella into combat, now that would be a sight. "If you don't mind could we get a move on, I wouldn't wanna be late."

Itachi leangthened his strides and gained a bit of space between them.

"What dull things do you think sensei has in store for us today?" Mitsuko had managed to catch up to him, her walk actually seemed more like bouncing along than walking. "Not even you mister serious can say that you see the point of some of the stuff he puts us through. I mean like hauling lumber for the old geezer, that ain't the work of a ninja."

"People hire us to do what they need to have done and obviously we can't afford to be picky. Besides there is value to be gained from the smallest of chores, you just need to apply yourself."

"Ah yeaash, sometimes you sound very stuck up for an eight year old you know?" Mitsuko had extended her tounge in a taunting geasture despite being several years his senior. "Would it hurt you to relax once in a while."

"I don't have the time to relax, I want get stronger. No, I need to get stronger and I'm the only one that can do what needs to be done to set things straight." From the look on her face Itachis could tell that his statement had passed straight over her head.

"Creepy kiddo, just don't go all psycho on me, Gloomy."

The keept walking and soon the city was out of sight and they had entered the woods. The day would pass without nothing serious happening, but for Itachi each day passing wasn't lost, they merely meant that he was one day closer to seeing his little brother again.

"One day brother, one day I will attone," he clenched his fist as he and Mitsuko steped out into the clearing that was their destination.

* * *

Author's note: Well it's short but I hope to be back to working on this one now, mainly I really felt like continuing this one tonight, it might be riddled with errors, buts that's a thing to worry about tomorrow. Hopefully the next chapter will both be a lot longer and out fairly soon.

The next chapter will be from Ranma's point of view and we will get to see how his life turned out. In the end of that or the chapter after I plan to bring him back to his original world. The only thing I can say is that I mean to make full use of the fact that the two worlds are separate from eachother. I know where I wanna take this story but I really get bored on the journey to the fun stuff. These first chapters seems a lot like repeting old stuff that has been done in fanfiction for ages. Well I hope to get more original in the future.

Thanks to all those that reviewed means a lot to see that I have some that read this and take some enjoyment from it, thanks. I'm going to try to keep Ranma close to canon Ranma, though I'm not a very good personality writer, but that's my intention. If he wasn't the Ranma we all know, I might as well have made up an completly original character and wrothe him in instead.


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